Example of association
Picture this: you are at home, learning, let’s say… Japanese (it could be anything, it’s your imagination after all).
Your brother comes in and decides to watch a news report (I know it’s not very realistic, it’s just for the example). Obviously, you are distracted by this noise.
What are you going to do?
You can, of course, decide to stop everything and watch the news with him… that would be the easiest for you, but the most effective? Certainly not.
You can continue studying. It’s also much easier to continue learning when a background noise comes in the middle of your studies than if you try to start when a noise disturbs you, since you are already in your “learning bubble”.
So continue studying… I know, it’s easier said than done, but instead of making excuses, take advantage of this situation. How? By associating the news with Japanese.
You can’t stop your brain from understanding the news, since it runs dozens of times faster than what’s happening around us. Even if you’re focused, your brain will register the news, and it will put it in the same “drawer” as the Japanese.
So, later, when you want to know how to say written Japanese, you will remember that one day you saw the news at the same time, and your brain will do all the work for you, replaying the scene in order, and you may even remember news that you didn’t hear that day!
Yes, your brain is that efficient, so stop complaining about your lack of intelligence or memory and learn to use this incredible machine that you have.